Developing an Integrated Arts and Media Studies Curriculum: One Model

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Abstract

The arts and media studies have received less attention than other disciplines by advocates
of integrative pedagogy and learning. This paper examines one attempt to correct this
oversight--the development of an integrated arts and media studies curriculum in The Department
of Visual and Performing Arts at Rutgers University-Newark. The examination includes
a discussion of the soon-to-be instituted interdisciplinary curriculum (Fall 2009) built around
varying degrees of engagement with the urban community surrounding the campus, a brief history
of how the curriculum was developed, the theoretical rationale supporting it, and a discussion
of the curriculum's larger social agenda that was shaped by the ideas of Elliot W. Eisner,
Stanford professor of art and education, and Richard Florida, social scientist and economist.